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Let there be Light (Visit Resource)
LET THERE BE LIGHT knee arthroscopy reveals the inside story The story behind the discovery of arthroscopy goes something like this: In exchange for English lessons, Dr. Masaki Watanabe would teach the young Canadian surgeon his experimental technique for corrective knee surgery. The year was 1964, and Dr. Robert W. Jackson was in Tokyo on a clinical scholarship that included providing orthopaedic care to the Canadian team competing at the nearby Olympics. Jackson, following up on a suggestion from one of his professors, was skeptical at first since Watanabe seemed to be toiling away in professional obscurity. Using instruments that, by today's standards, could only be described as crude, Watanabe inserted a thin optical device with a tiny bulb at its end through a small incision near the kneecap and then shone a light on the inside of a knee joint. You could actually see! Furthermore, through another small incision, he could insert another instrument that could snip away torn cartilage. To fully appreciate the impact of the arthroscopic revolution, consider this: At the time, the standard surgical procedure for "catching" or "locking" knees was to surgically open the knee joint to see first-hand what the problem was and then correct it - major surgery for what were, in essence, fairly minor injuries. In professional sports, many a promising athletic career had been cut short by repeated major knee surgeries and their long recovery times. As he headed back to North America in 1965 with a No. 21 arthroscope in his luggage, Robert Jackson realized he was carrying the answer to a head coach's prayer. Deemed a curiosity at first, now some 40 years later, arthroscopic surgery is probably the most commonly performed orthopaedic procedure worldwide. The field has broadened to include other major joints (such as shoulders and elbows) and soft-tissue repair of torn or ruptured tendons and ligaments. Fibre optics, digital technology and miniature cameras have resulted in ultra-thin instruments that can relay back to a monitor a crystal-clear image in full living colour.
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Added: Fri Oct 20 2006
